The field of the disclosure relates generally to gas turbine engines and, more particularly, to a method and system for tailoring in-plane characteristics of fiber reinforced composite panels using short fibers.
At least some known gas turbine engines include rotating components mounted to shafts and surrounded by shrouds and or casings that provide structural support and air flow guidance through the gas turbine engine. The rotating components, such as, the blades of fans, compressors, and turbines, for example, rotate with a tip of the respective component passing very close to the shrouds or casings. During some events, for example, a bird ingestion into the gas turbine engine, the blades may contact the shrouds or casings. Such events typically cause damage to the shrouds or casings and the blades. The damage may also cause the gas turbine engine to operate with a lesser capability, necessitating repair. To facilitate mitigating such damage and possibly forestalling immediate repair necessity, some shrouds or casings are equipped with abradable panels that circumscribe at least some of the rotating components, such as, the fan blades. The abradable panels serve to form a portion of the flow path of the fan assembly. However, during an event where the blade contacts the abradable panels of the fan casing, the abradable material at least partially yields, minimizing the damage to the fan blades. The abradable panel is designed to be relatively easy to replace or repair such that total maintenance time to repair the casing after an event is minimized. In the event of larger rotor unbalance and the fan blades contact the fan casing components behind the abradable panels, these components in the fan casing may not be configured to yield sufficiently to prevent damage to the fan blades. These components in the fan casing are usually formed to be relatively strong and/or stiff. While these characteristics of strength and stiffness may, in many instances, be desirable, in other instances they may be detrimental.